EDITORIAL: 26 reasons to act: Dylan Hockley

By Opinion Staff /

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Nicole Hockley talks about the "amazing bond" that her son Dylan had with his teacher, Anne Marie Murphy.

On the morning of Dec. 14, she searched frantically for Murphy in the crowd of teachers and students who'd been evacuated from the school because she knew that she'd never let Dylan leave her side in a difficult situation.

She didn't. Police found Dylan's body and his teacher's body together, her arms wrapped around him.

Dylan Hockley was 6 years old when he was murdered with his favorite teacher, 19 other children and five other educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

We may never know if changes to the way we screen and treat mental illness in Connecticut would have stopped his killer from committing this tragedy or prevent future killings.

What we do know is that the power of the murder weapon -- a semiautomatic Bushmaster AR-15 rifle with high-capacity ammunition magazines -- allowed him to kill more people, faster, than should be possible with guns that we allow to be sold at the neighborhood gun shop.

Common-sense, humane restrictions on the manufacture of and access to these kind of weapons should be an urgent priority for state and federal lawmakers.